ROCK SPRINGS – Residents will have another choice of where to wash their vehicles as the Rock Springs Planning and Zoning Department approved the construction of a new car wash on Foothill Drive in the vacant lot next to Taco Time.

While the Planning and Zoning Department approves the construction, they cannot tell private business owners what to build on private property. The role of the commission is to make sure it is built to proper codes, in proper zoning and with community safety in mind.

The automatic car wash will be located at 2512 Foothill Blvd. and will be approximately 3,020 sq. ft. The plan was submitted by Mark Cowan and Nathan Hager of Wash ‘N’ Glow, LLC.

City Planner Jennifer Shields said several years ago the property was split with Taco Time on one side while the northern half of the split has sat vacant. The project will have a shared access off Foothill.

During early reviews of the plans it was clear the access to the property would be an issue. There are several accesses to different businesses along the stretch and several are closer together than what is recommended. With the traffic congestion that can be seen at different times of the day at the Foothill and Dewar intersection, Shields said traffic safety is the departments top concern.

The group has been working with the city engineering department on the access issue to try to find a solution which works for all parties involved. Currently, the proposed plan would be to move the access 20 ft.

After several other departments made small comments on the project, revised plans were submitted to the city Planning Department addressing most of the small concerns from other agencies. Shields said the developers of the car wash still need to meet with the adjacent business owner on Foothill to finalize a shared-access agreement before the project can move forward.

Brandt Lyman of Western Engineers and Geologists, represented the developers at the meeting Wednesday night. Lyman said the company looked at several other sites throughout the city but felt this location would be the best. While they do understand the traffic concerns, Lyman said because of the type of business it is, it relies on being highly visible to customers. He said the traffic at the location would benefit the business.

The board asked about a possible timeline of the construction of the project.  Lyman said it is mostly prefabricated material so they can be build pretty quickly. He said they want to begin as soon as possible and will maintain an “aggressive schedule” on the construction of the car wash.

Shields said this lot has sat vacant for a long time and felt it has stayed vacant because companies did not want to deal with the issues involving the access to the property.

The commission approved the project with several recommendations from staff added in. First and foremost, the company will have to sit down and resolve the shared access. Also, an off-site drainage plan would need to be submitted. There was some questions about water and drainage from the board. Shields said the Waste Water Department is very good at looking at projects like this and making sure everything is up to code.

Also landscaping and parking would need to be finished before an occupancy permit is awarded. The company has one year to acquire the proper building permits and if they do not in that one year time frame, they will have to submit a new application to the city.